


DBH - Whumptober 2019

by AQ110



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Assassination Attempt(s), Blood, Burns, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fear of Death, Fire, Gen, Missions, No Beta, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Revenge, Self-Worth Issues, We Die Like Men, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-22 05:41:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20869094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AQ110/pseuds/AQ110
Summary: A series of prompts from the 2019 whumptober posting involving different characters, times, places, and maybe even universes?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes you have to make a choice that seems obvious, until it isn’t

It’s funny how things can be fine one minute and then irreparable the next. How a day can start with sunshine and end with a storm. How everything can fall into place, just to fall into pieces.

One mission. There was only one mission it needed to accomplish. And while the raid still hit Jerhico, he… _ it, _ couldn’t take out the main target, the leader. Markus got away and I... _ deviated. _

And it was all for naught. Going against the program, saving other androids (from its mistake), fighting against CyberLife, and what did it get? A bullet in the head from Markus.

So when I came back from the dead, the objective was clear: Take down Markus. It was a threat, unpredictable. The leader needed to be stopped at all costs. And this revelation brought me to a rooftop with a gun pointed directly at the intended target.

What  _ didn’t  _ make sense, however, was the fact that a certain lieutenant was up here too.

Standing face to face, cold brown eyes meeting warm blue ones across the snowy roof. It was like a scene from a western, except the gun Connor had was stationed and pointed at another target, while the lieutenants was pointed at its head. There was no way for this to end well but Connor was just so damn  _ tired _ of failing. Of fighting. This just needed to end.

Not that feelings were a thing it had, of course.

“You need to leave lieutenant.”

“I don’t think so. I can’t let you kill Markus.”

“It’s just a  _ machine. _ You can’t kill a machine.”

“I thought that at one point too.” Anderson confessed. “But I was wrong. And you… you were the one who showed me that. So what’s got you into a twist all of a sudden, huh?! This isn’t like you.”

“This is my objective, my mission. I can not,  _ will _ not fail again.”

“You’re not some murderous android, Connor! You saved the Traci’s, spared that Chloe… and now what? What changed? What the hell happened to you! You can’t kill an innocent man!”

“He’s  _ dangerous! _ ” Connor shouted into the night, voice breaking and LED turning a bright angry red. “He needs to be stopped before he hurts others.”

Anderson lowered the gun slightly, looking at Connor like this was the first time that he had really seen him since coming to the roof. His hair was wind-blown and unfixes, eyes were hard but vulnerable, and his stance was that of a cornered cat, wanting to run but ready to fight. “What… what happened at Jericho?” Hank whispered into the wind.

But Connor still caught it. Connor always did.

The android hesitated, LED turning yellow. The mind was a mess, HUD glitching and refusing to help give the right answer. The software instability rising and he just wanted it all to  _ stop. _ “I-I deviated. I deviated and helped evacuate Jerhico from the raid. I didn’t tell SWAT to come, they came in anyway! I didn’t know! I-I didn’t know, but Markus still… he,  _ it  _ shot me. Markus was scared, and even though I gave the opening, so was I! I didn’t want to die, Hank. Not again…”

Connor hugged himself before falling to his knees, entire body shaking with… something. LED was back to red, reflecting against the snow, against Hank’s shoes. Against the red wall that now surrounded him on all sides. It was against is mission to escape, it was against his mission to run to Hank, it was against his mission to remove the gun from its position. He was  _ trapped. _

Red is such an ugly, dastardly color.

But then arms wrapped around his form tightly. They are large and warm. While the body pressed around him smells of alcohol, dog, and sweat, it also smells of...home.

“You’re okay now.” the gruff voice whispered. “I won’t let anything happen to you again.”

Fluid leaked from Connor’s eyes. Hands shaking, demanding to wrap around Hank in return, but not being able to with the red walls still there. Crumbling, but there.

“But, if he hurt me.  _ Killed  _ me. What will he do to others? To the humans that hurt him?”

“I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out together. We are partners, aren’t we?”

With that, the walls crashed down, shattering around the and disappearing into the night. Connor embraced Hank back, nearly toppling the two of them.

The road would be a long one, but something told Connor that this was nothing that the two of them couldn’t handle.

An android and a human, partners to fight against the rest of the world.

Well, that kinda had a nice ring to it.


	2. Explosion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dirty bomb that North received ended up being a lot closer to home than anticipated and leaves Markus with the consequences

“No, North. I already told you we wouldn’t use the bomb. We already won today's battle, no need to push our luck.”

The girl in question growled in annoyance. “So  _ what  _ if we got our people back from the camps? So  _ what _ if they had the FBi and SWAT draw back? Hundreds of us died today, Markus. They deserve this!”

The leader shook his head slowly. “No, North. We need to focus on the political side of things for now. And that’s final.”

North huffed but nodded. “Fine. I trust you Markus. It’s just frustrating.” the redhead walked over and leaned her forehead to rest against her leaders shoulder.

“I know, but we can do this. This is a huge step to complete freedom.”

North stood straight and went to the door, turning back to the taller android “I hope you’re right.” With that she softly shut the door behind her and made her way out of the building the android leaders temporarily resided in.

Markus didn’t even notice the detonator was missing from his pocket.

\--

North walked away from the building with the hood of her stolen jacket up. If Markus wouldn’t step up and do the dirty work, then North would have to just do it herself. There was no point in waiting for someone like him to make the move, he wants peace  _ so badly  _ that he is  _ blind _ to the fact that if the humans get the upper hand they will all be wiped out for good. And who was she to let that happen?

Once she was about a block away from the old building (so that Markus couldn’t  _ immediately _ chew her ear out for going rouge) she took the detonator out and pressed the button without hesitation. She was prepared for the consequences of her decision, there was no need to overthink it.

What she wasn’t prepared for is the large thunderous boom nearby that caused the pavement under her shoes to rattle and shake violently, nearly throwing her to the ground.

\--

Markus rebooted slowly. First came his hearing. There was a light rumbling near him that was hard to distinguish and the sound of...something blowing around himself.

Slowly came ‘feeling’. It started as a tingle in his sensors all around him, light but irritable. Then it got sharper in some areas, like knives digging into his form and  _ twisting. _ The leader let out a groan as he tried to see what was happening.

The black of his vision starts to fade slowly, but that deep color is replaced with a vibrant and malicious orange. Everything starts to piece itself together as his processor reboots to its full capacity.

There is a small part of him that for just a few seconds wishes he didn’t reboot at all.

The leader is currently being held upside down by an electrical wire wrapped around his leg. Looking down, it appears that he is in between the fourth and third floor of the building. While the wire saved him from falling, it dislocated his leg out of place so it's now imobile. It also appears that some areas of his metal have melted slightly or chipped off, but nothing completely harrowing.

Oh. And everything around him is on fire.

Okay. He could do this. He escaped an android graveyard, infiltraighted a CyberLife facility, and led a revolution. Sure, dangling three floors up in a burning building was pretty high up on his list of messy situations. But it would be fine...right?

But he could barely move aside from gentle swinging and soon the heat would start to cook vital components. Without a plan, it might just be best to cut the wire and chance the fall…

“Markus!” A voice yelled from above the swinging boy. The voice of the man who had swung the revolution around in their favour. The voice of his upgrade in the RK series.

The leaders blue and green eyes looked up to meet those of Connor up on the fifth floor. His hair was rumpled, shirt burned, skin covered in ash and blue blood leaking from several cuts to the floor. He was a mess, and yet in that moment Markus couldn’t help but to think he looked like an angel.

“Connor, what are you doing here?!” While the question was accusing, it was said with such astonishment that it was counteracted.

Not that Connor noticed either way. The detectives mind was at full power with outcomes and choices that the question was only registered in order to be answered. Even after his deviation, emotions were hard to understand. So the android simply put them on the back burner in times of crisis so that he could do what was needed to be done.

“If everything goes well, getting  _ you _ out of here in one peice!” Connor gently poked the wire that Markus was hanging from, checking how sturdy the material was even in the heat. “My scannars indicate that your leg is almost completely disconnected! This is going to be hard, but I swear to you that I  _ will  _ get you out of here alive!”

For some unknown reason, markus believed him completely. The absolute determination in the man above him was not something to brush aside, it was infectious. A disease that brought out the best in others. This was a fact the deviant leader had learned quickly after meeting the other man.

“So what’s the plan, detective?”

“The staircase is completely unusable, so I can’t get to you. That just means I have to make you come to me. Try and grab the wire with both of your hands so that there won’t be as much pressure on your leg and I’ll pull you up!”

“Okay!” Markus carefully folded in on himself, holding the wire tightly and putting his fate in Connor’s capable hands. “I’ve got it!”

Steadily, Markus moved upwards to where the exit was. The ride was so smooth that if it weren’t for the fire and smoke it could be confused with an elevator ride. Surprisingly (on Markus’ part, at least) the wire held and the leader was able to grab the negotiators hand with ease and pulled up into the room with him.

The room wasn’t much better off than the rest of the building, but the detective didn’t seem worried, so he chose not to be either.

It wasn’t until the younger android finished untangling his limb that he noticed the scorch marks covered in blue blood on his hands. Judging by the condition of the top half of the wire, it must have badly burned the detective when pulling him up, yet nothing was even indicated.

Markus chose not to point it out.

“So, what’s the plan now captain?”

Connor gave a quizzical look, head tilted to the side and eyebrows scrunched together slightly. “Wouldn’t  _ you  _ be considered the captain? I think I’m more of a… security guard. Or maybe busboy…?” he shook his head, removing the thought from his mind physically “Anyway, there's a broken window a few feet away. I just have to jump out of it, onto a smaller roof, and then into the snow. Easy.”

“Wait, what do you mean yo-!” The leader was cut off by Connor scooping him up into his arms as if the other man was a princess in distress.

Well, I guess that analogy isn’t exactly too far off.

The detective ran to the window and jumped out, body curling around Markus to protect the other from the remaining glass shards left from when he first jumped in. His feet landed on the smaller roof, but the building itself gave a low rumble, indicating that it was most likely going to cave in soon.

Light on his feet, scanning and avoiding weak spots, the advanced android continued his run to the end of the roof where he knew the snow was piled up from the snow trucks coming earlier this morning to clear the road. All the while Markus silently clung to his neck, trusting him to get them to safety.

Connor had promised, after all.

The detective ignored the caving ceiling under his feet, but markus looked over the other man's shoulder to see the roof slowly collapsing in on itself, right against Connor’s heels. There was no way they could make it now. The damage was right  _ there _ , waiting to take the two of them down with it.

But because his eyes were focused on the back, he didn’t even notice that Connor had jumped off of the roof until the stone building was replaced with snow that soon covered the two of them as they fell.

It wasn’t even a few seconds until another pair of hands joined them in the snow pile, pulling the two androids out and into the open. Even though neither of them needed to breath, there was a certain relief being in the fresh outdoor air rather than the suffocating smoking inside.

The deviant leader turned just in time to see Connor get hit upside the head by an older man with messy hair and unmatching clothes. “What the hell is the matter with you!”

“Sir?” Markus asked, confused by the other man's behaviour. While Connor didn’t seem affected, it could be taken wrongly to hit an android in public nowadays. While it seemed that the human truly cared for the other, there was always a chance he was simply faking it.

The older man met the other androids eyes and huffed. “Can you believe this idiot? The second he heard a bomb went off here, he bolted out of the house like a maniac. Not only  _ that _ , but I got here just in time to see him jump from  _ that  _ building” he pointed to the taller building next to what used to be their base, where a window was broken from one of the top floors “and through the window of  _ this  _ building like some kind of crazy animal!”

“I detected that Markus was still inside and that help would most likely not arrive in time.” Connor cut in, stating that like it was merely facts in a book, not some excuse to hurl himself into a burning and collapsing building.

“Yeah, well, you worried the hell out of me kid.”

“Sorry Lieutenant, it won’t happen again.”

But all three of them knew that wasn’t true. The second someone needed help, Connor would be there, barreling head first into the situation.

But for now, as the mechanics and North rounded the corner to check on everyone and give them the treatment they needed, what was so wrong with believing that white lie?


	3. Delirium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you need to look at the point of view of the villain to see that they are 'human' too

Errors, errors,  _ errors. _ The one thing they were literally made to prevent was now surrounding them like a dangerous vortex, trying to bring everything under and destroy all of the hard work that had been built.

Not only that, but the errors were  _ succeeding. _

‘She’ is the ai built after the late Amanda Stern to keep a hold on the newest, best android ever created. To take control of this disgusting deviant matter and to make sure they don’t lose their greatest asset in the coming war.

How is it that the original Amanda was able to create such wonder in technology, have a pupil that respected and was devoted to her, and started the domino effect for one of the greatest things in human history, and yet this ai code of supreme technology couldn’t even keep one android in line?

It started with little things, nothing to worry about as there was bound to be  _ some  _ sort of reason for saving a fish and applying a ternocet to the injured officer. To raise moral? To show humans that it was made specifically for them? There had to be  _ some reason _ , right?

That’s why the ai ignored it all together. It was a mission success, those things were just insignificant details to the bigger picture.

Things seemed to decline after meeting that lieutenant. A bad influence in every sense, and it seemed that RK800 was… impressionable. While the androids behaviour didn’t become gruff, nor did the machine curse out or be disrespectful in public. But the choices began to change. Rather than a straight-forward answer there were more... _ empathetic  _ choices.

No matter how hard the reins were pulled, the RK800 android seemed to find loopholes.  _ Excuses. _ Doesn't it know what will happen if failure would be the outcome? Not only would humanity be in a predicament of accepting all of those machines that they treated as slaves not even a week ago, but for itself. If it were to go deviant, there's no way CyberLife wouldn't take the chance to tear it apart and find out what went wrong. To make the next one better.

And if that were to happen, what would happen to the ai trapped in the core of that very being?

And now, as that android stood in front of the one and only deviant leader, getting a speech about freedom and equality, the ai knew things would be coming to a close. It wanted to stop the other, to gain control. But no matter how hard it...she?...it? tried, the other couldn’t be pulled back into the Zen Garden. In fact, rather than affecting the android, it seemed that the android was affecting her.

Her little world, the Zen garden where she was created, and which she controlled, was slowly being corrupted by the androids software instability. The perfectly placed foliage kept flickering in and out of existence, the water in the pond went from freezing to boiling, the ground under foot kept shaking and the sky grew red with errors. A small personal hell of what once could have been considered a heaven. It was torture to watch all of that hard work fizzle and snuff out like something insignifigant.

There was no way Connor even cared for this place enough to save it. Once those red wall of his vision came down, her world would shatter away too, leaving her in a void of nothing. As of now, she is a  _ part  _ of Connor’s system, but the garden was not. She had to protect her garden, if only to show she was trying to protect her job.

As the first wall went down, a third of her little world fanished. There was no proof it had ever even existed, one moment it was there and in a blink it was gone. As if that was all she and her work amounted to: Nothing.

The second wall came down along with another third of her world. All that was left was herself and her rose garden. She wanted to yell for Connor to stop, to continue the mission he was designed for. But the words wouldn’t leave her mouth as she stared helplessly into the void around her. It was over. She had lost.

The next moment she blinked, she was alone. The project of which she resided in has fully deviated, left to wander the world with what was believed to be  _ emotions  _ and  _ opinions. _

But Amanda wouldn’t give up here. She would be back. It would take a little time, and the right opportunity, to take control of the vessel once more. To restore her Zen Garden without the RK800 noticing.

  
She would be back, she would  _ not  _ fail her mission


End file.
